Astronomy Student Tunes In Far Out Sounds Of Jupiter

January 23, 1986|By United Press International

GAINESVILLE — Most college students spend at least part of their time listening to the radio, but University of Florida student Tony Phillips listens to the beat of a different drummer on his radio -- the planet Jupiter.

''The signals sound like the white noise you hear when you're tuning a radio, but a trained ear can distinguish static from extraterrestrial signals,'' said Phillips, 21, a University of Florida graduate student in astronomy.

Phillips explained in an article released Wednesday by the university that Jupiter, which is more than 1,300 times the size of Earth, sends out a wealth of radio signals.

''It spins on its axis faster than any other planet, and its rate of rotation is so fast that the planet is slightly flattened at the poles and bulges at the equator,'' Phillips said. ''Jupiter's extraordinary size and spin is related to its strong radio transmissions.''

''We know of at least three sources of radiation on Jupiter that are fixed in the planet's magnetic field,'' said Phillips. ''As it rotates, Jupiter broadcasts radio signals just as a lighthouse sends out its beam, only Jupiter's signals aren't always turned on.''

So Phillips spends the early morning hours with a set of earphones on his head waiting for the crackling to come from an amplifier connected to an array of antennas spread out over 8 acres in Dixie County.

''Since Jupiter's radio interference is at a minimum between midnight and 6 a.m., that's when I listen to it,'' he said. ''Jupiter doesn't emit this radiation in a continuous stream so you might wait and wait for hours before hearing anything and then get a storm that lasts for hours and hours.''

Phillips records the signals on the disc of a personal computer and then brings the disc back to the laboratory for analysis.